The Help by Kathryn Stockettt

Copyright: 2009

Pages: 464

Genre: General fiction

Book Source: Own audio

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. - book cover

My Thoughts: 

I listened to The Help on audio and have to say it was one of my favourites of the year. Voices are captured brilliantly by 3 different narrators and I was completely captivated for 18 hours. Whilst I love reading, it is a rare experience with audio to have such an emotional connection to a story and the characters, almost like I was part of the experience, a participant rather than an observer. It transported me to a time and place and shared experiences with me that I had little knowledge of, and I found myself in turn, outraged, amused and saddened. The Help tells the story of a white woman, secretly compiling an account of the real-life experiences of coloured women working for white families, in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60's.

Skeeter Phelan is a forward thinking, highly educated young white woman and aspiring author, who believes there is more to life than bridge, Junior League and the shallow prejudices shared by many of her peers.  A 'bathroom initiative' to further segregate coloured maids in their employers' homes spurs Skeeter to tell the story that needs to be told.

As Skeeter explains "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

Aibileen and Minny are maids employed by Skeeter's 'friends'. Together they form an unlikely trio, sharing a common bond & cause as they attempt to bring the help's stories to publication. I loved Minny's outspoken character and found myself sympathising with her emotional outbursts that frequently got her fired. Aibileen is wise and kind, she's raised and loved 17 white children throughout her life and Mae Mobely is no exception. Aibileen's relationship with this little girl is touching and heartbreaking as she attempts to impart values of love, tolerance and acceptance to her young charge.

 "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."

"I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming--and it come in ever white child's life -- when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites"

The Help is a story of hope, of love and friendship, of inequality and injustices, it's a story of courage, the courage to do what is right in the face of adversity & ostracism. It's a poignant, funny and enlightening read that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Visit Kathryn Stockett's website to find out more about this wonderful new voice in fiction.